A Shift from Linguistic Structural Approach to the Communicative Approach in Iranian Junior High Schools

In the last 2 decades, English as a foreign language was taught based on structural approach and Audio Lingual Method (ALM) of teaching in Iranian secondary schools but 3 years ago this condition completely elapsed and communicative approach (CLT) rose up to make learners communicatively able to real life interactions. This study was designed to explore the effects of this shift on Iranian students. Participants were 40 public secondary school students in two 20-member groups of high school (HS) and junior high school students (JHS). The data were gathered by means of a questionnaire, a written interview that contained demographic information of the participants, their hobbies, interest and their goals in future. To gauge students efficiency, the questionnaire was administered to the participants. In order to determine whether there is any significant difference between the groups, independent t-Test was run. The results showed that the CLT taught junior high school students (JHS) are more communicatively able to interact in real life condition than those high school students (HS) who were under AL method of teaching. The implications the findings carry for EFL education authorities are further discussed.